2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 12

Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

LEGO Advent Calendar

This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open. We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas, and hope that you’ll join us! Let’s see what there is to open on Day 12.

Thirsty? Today’s Harry Potter advent calendar brings us a bar with a drink, while the Star Wars build is an adorable little porg.

LEGO Advent Calendar

Bart: This poor Porg was ready for his balcony moment, but his Juliet didn’t show up… Poor Porg.

CJ: I’m going to go with a hint from Bart and describe this as a balcony of some sort. Lacking context, it’s hard to figure out how it should be incorporated into the growing Advent scene – sitting on the ground it seems more like a puppet stage. But Potter still gets a holiday point for the greenery. The Star Wars porg is great for army building, I guess. That’s a thing, right? Porg armies?

Lino: Peter the Porg thought opening a holiday egg nog stand would be a good idea. But then again Peter is a Porg and most of their endeavors end up as a Wookiee’s dinner or some other unfortunate demise. It’s their own fault for being delicious. And stupid.

Benjamin: If only that were a cup of green milk, the porg would be smiling. But Peter doesn’t like water.

Ed: Porg got stood up at the altar on his wedding day. Just coz LEGO couldn’t give us two Porgs in the Advent Calendar to complete the scene.

Time to choo-choo on to the next builds, which happen to be a train from City and a skateboard from Friends.

LEGO Advent Calendar

Ed: City Advent Calendar Team: Let’s make another train set (spends 2 hours getting it right)Friends Advent Calendar Team: I bet the City Team is going to do another Train. Tell you what, just throw in that skateboard and we can head down for lunch a little earlier today (spends 2 seconds on agreement of the color, and done!)

Benjamin: The train seems out of scale with the fire truck and microscale buildings, but it’s still nice. And at least they put a bow on it, right, Bart?

Bart: And the award for laziest gift wrapper goes to the person who gifted this skateboard.

CJ: City has a cute micro train build, with a different engine construction from the Friends version seen yesterday. It’s nice to see some internal diversity in the calendars. Some nice parts for re-use here. Friends takes another dive, though, with a skateboard with a bow stuck on it. Low part count, and generally yawn-worthy. I will begrudgingly grant it a holiday point for the bow, though.

Lino: One will get you there. The other may see you endure a gnarly faceplate and a credit-carded gooch in front of all the other kids. Choose wisely.

Chris: I have to say, that little train is pretty awesome. I’m continually amazed that LEGO finds new ways to build microscale trains, and they nearly always look great. The stacking with the rounded 1×2 plate to fit the 1×3 tile is quite clever. The skateboard is….not much on its own, but I guess OK with other the minidolls.

When combined, you get the best thing any porg could ever want for Christmas.

Ed: The Porg on the train goes round and round, round and round, round and round. The Porg on the train goes round and round, all through the galaxy.

Benjamin: Every Porg knows that the fastest way around Ach To is by the green milk train.

Chris: If you look closely here, you’ll notice that the train gained an extra tender. That’s because this day came with enough spare parts to build a complete extra car, and still have all those other pieces left over! You could almost build two extras!

Time to chug on over to Day 13. Thanks for joining us today for another 2020 LEGO Advent Calendar build!

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11 comments on “2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 12

  1. Emilie Riddle

    Any creative ideas on how to connect the train cars together? My six year old is pretty disappointed that they are all separate!

  2. Holly

    Hello! Mom helping sons here … do the train pieces connect via the tender(s)? We have two frustrated kid here. Thanks in advance!

  3. Naomi

    I was really confused by today’s ‘Harry Potter’ build, not least because the build guide shows it flat. It really should have one of the little icons to show you need to rotate the piece, but given that is I think the first time in my entire life I have found a real flaw in a Lego guide, I think I can forgive them! I checked the official product images though and it clips on to the side of yesterday’s fireplace, so it is most likely a window. Much nicer than the strange grave it appeared to be before I looked online!!

  4. Chris Doyle

    @Holly – You can stop trying; the train cars won’t be able to hook up. The roller stakes used for the wheels don’t connect end-to-end, so the best you can do is just line them up in a row.

  5. Chris Doyle

    @Emilie Riddle – There isn’t a way to hook them directly to each other, but you *can* mount them on some LEGO plate. The trick is to use a 1×2 jumper plate (the 1×2 plate with a single stud in the center) under the tender car to get reasonable spacing. I mocked it up quickly and put a photo on my Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2kgggfu

  6. Brad

    Hmm. LEGO string is too thick, but perhaps a thin length of thread could be run between the skate piece and plate to connect the train cars?

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